The present invention relates generally to vessels for containing spills of liquid or solid material, and, more particularly, to a collapsible spill containment receptacle for use with storage and transport tanks.
The transportation of hazardous and non-hazardous liquid and solid chemical and petroleum products is a thriving industry in this and other countries, with large quantities of such products being transported annually. Tanker trucks and railroad tanker cars having storage tanks are normally utilized to effect the transport of these materials and sometimes develop leaks in their valves or walls of the tanks, thereby permitting the contents to spill into the outside environment. Such leaks are not infrequent and can occur from undetected damage, aging of the equipment, or continual vibration.
Moreover, even stationary storage tanks may develop leans as a result of corrosion, impacts, and failure of materials.
The resulting spills not only result in the commercial loss of product, but they also often jeopardize the environment or even pose a direct and immediate hazard to human health and safety in the case of hazardous substances. Accordingly, some statutes have been enacted which impose fines upon the operators of tank transports if a spill occurs. The operators are generally required to absorb the cost of the cleanup of the spill.
Many containment and diverter structures have been proposed to deal with the problem of these spills. Some prior art containment vessels rely upon straps to hold the vessel in position beneath or around the leaking equipment, and to hold the vessel in an open, spill receiving position. Reliance upon the straps alone, with a collapsible container, leads to instability. This can result in a secondary spill from the container if it is not properly handled, if the containment system fails, or if, through inadvertence, the container is dislodged from the leaking equipment.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel, stable but flexible spill containment receptacle for use with tanks.
It is also an object to provide such a containment receptacle which is collapsible for transport on a tank transport, thereby enabling immediate response to the development of a leak.
A further object is to provide such a containment receptacle which can be readily and relatively economically fabricated.